How can HN be so pro-AI for the rest of the world, but anti-AI on HN? Do we not think that other people want to see words, pictures, software, and videos created by humans too?
HN is not a single entity, but many people with varying views.
Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
421–430 of 1001 posts
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#422I'm absolutely 100% for this policy. My only caution is that good writers and LLMs look very similar, because LLMs were trained on a corpus of good writers. Good writers use semicolons and em-dashes. Sometimes we used bulleted lists or Oxford commas. So we should make sure to follow that other HN rule, and assume the person on the other end is a good faith actor, and be cautious about accusing someone of using AI. (I…
I don't really think that good writing and LLM writing looks all that similar. It's not always easy to spot (and maybe HN users aren't always doing a great job at it), but even the best LLM output tends to have an "LLM smell" to it that's hard to avoid. Like, sure, LLM writing is almost always grammatically correct, spelled correctly, formatted correctly, etc., which tends to be true of good writing. But there's a ce…
AI driven web design has the same smell, it’s quite fascinating to see the different tells in different media. Then it’s also quite fascinating to see those same tells change and evolve over time.
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#423How can HN be so pro-AI for the rest of the world, but anti-AI on HN? Do we not think that other people want to see words, pictures, software, and videos created by humans too?
Astroturfing with AI generated comments about AI, it feeds itself. By definition, the intent os to make real people think there's consensus formed around an issue by other humans.
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#424[deleted]
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#425THIS.
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#426There should be a "flag as AI" link in addition to "flag" and then a setting for people to show flagged as AI. Once the flagged as AI reaches a certain threshold then it disappears unless you enable "Show AI". Maybe once enough posts have been flagged like that then that corpus could be used to train an AI to automatically detect content generated by AI. That would be cool. Maybe the HN site wouldn't add this feature…
We're going to add that. I've resisted adding reasons-for-flagging for years, but even I can change my mind every decade or so.
A nice side effect is that it will double as a confirmation step, solving the FFF (fat finger flagging) problem.
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#427The rule has been around for years, but only in case law, i.e. moderation comments ( https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... ). What's new is that we promoted it to the guidelines. Fortunately I found some things we could cut as well, so https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html actually got shorter. --- Edit: here are the bits I cut: Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pic…
...Hacker News could use some more cute animal pictures, though.
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#428[deleted]
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#429I'm here to read what actual humans think. If I wanted to read what an LLM thinks, I could just ask it. But here's where it gets tricky: Do I prefer low-effort, off-the-top-of-my-head reactions, as long as it is human? Or do I want an insightful, well-thought-out response, even if it is LLM-enhanced? Am I here to read authentic humans because I value authenticity for its own sake (like preferring Champagne instead of…
By this logic, you might consider vibe coding a browser plugin that takes any HN comment less than 50 words and auto-expands it into an “insightful, well thought-out response.”
Re: Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans
#430How has Lobste.rs fared compared to HN in this regard? Lobste.rs is very similar to HN, but has an invite-only membership system.
I picked up lobsters last month, and I started to appreciate it much more because of the lack of generated comments. It has a anti-LLM slant, and they have their own moderation challenge (everything is getting tagged as vibecoding - which makes the tag lose meaning). But the comments are noticeable not-slop.